Rivieri Accused Of Soliciting To Commit Murder, Assault

June 09, 1991|By Alan J. Craver | Alan J. Craver,Staff writer

An undercover state police detective posed as a hired killer in the investigation of an Abingdon bar owner who offered the investigator $3,500 to murder and cut off the penis of his ex-girlfriend's lover, Harford District Court documents show.

Cpl. Frank D. Walters also posed as a hired killer in an investigation last year of Michael A. Bruno, a Baltimore County man held at the detention center on rape charges, records show. Bruno offered Walters $1,500 on June 28, 1990, to murder the woman who accused him of rape, court records show.

Walters, who is assigned to the state police's Special AssignmentUnit in Pikesville, could not be reached.

In the most recent investigation, Giovanni Rivieri of Abingdon was charged May 28 with threecounts of solicitation to commit a crime by the state police, District Court records show.

Rivieri, who operates the Bush Valley Inn, is charged with solicitation to commit murder, solicitation to commitassault and solicitation to commit maiming, according to charging documents.

Rivieri, 60, is being held in the county Detention Centerwithout bond. The solicitation charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Rivieri is scheduled for a District Court trial on June 27.

Rivieri met with Walters three times between May 7 and May 17 to discuss the plan, records say.

The first meeting between Rivieri and the investigator occurred four days after the defendant's trial on other criminal charges was postponed in Harford Circuit Court, records show.

Rivieri was charged with trespassing and concealing a deadly weapon after he was found carrying a knife and ice pick outside his ex-girlfriend's Abingdon home on March 2, 1990, records say.

The woman, Darline Bellmyer, filed a complaint against Rivieri on March 14, 1990, charging him with harassment and trespassing, records say.

Bellmyer said in the complaint that Rivieri was repeatedly calling her on the telephone, following her and coming to her house, records say.

At a May 7 meeting at the Box Hill Shopping Center in Abingdon, Rivieri instructed Walters to assault his ex-girlfriend's lover, Ronald Soto, of Levittown, Pa., records say.

Rivieri toldthe investigator to break Soto's arms and legs with a baseball bat, records say. He also instructed the trooper to cut off Soto's penis and to leave the victim in an area in which he wouldn't be found.

Police said in charging documents that investigators were told by a physician that such an injury would be fatal if not immediately treated, meaning that the victim would bleed to death.

"(The investigator) told Rivieri that cutting Soto's penis off would be a fatal wound and supplied Rivieri with the chance to back out of the plot," court documents say.

"He refused to cease his actions and supplied (the investigator) with enough information that led the investigator to personally observe Soto," documents say.

Rivieri provided the investigator with a description of Soto and his vehicle and the tag number of the vehicle, court papers say.

"Rivieri stated that it was very important that he knew when the assault would happen so that he wouldhave an alibi witness," the papers say.

At a second meeting May 10, Rivieri told the investigator that Bellmyer's house would be an ideal location to "do Soto," court documents say.

At a third meetingon May 17, Rivieri told the investigator that he was trying to have the charges previously filed against him dismissed so that he could leave the state before Soto was killed, the documents say.